Gameustra

Despite the recent troubles of the music gaming genre and dissolving of the Guitar Hero franchise, Harmonix is optimistic, as sales for its Xbox 360/Kinect game Dance Central surpass those for Rock Band 3.

"To date [Dance Central] has outperformed Rock Band 3 at retail," said Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos in an interview with video game weblog Destructoid. 

"It's one of the top-selling titles for the Kinect, and the Kinect is one of the most successful products in the entire video game industry right now. So we're thrilled with how Dance Central has performed out of the gate."

As of January 2011, three months after its release, the standalone version of the controller-free dancing game had sold over 1.2 million copies in North America, according to figures provided by the NPD exclusively to Gamasutra. That number doesn't include Dance Central copies sold with Xbox 360 Kinect bundles or Kinect accessory bundles.

Despite explosive growth in the music gaming field just five years ago, the genre has suffered recently, as sales for major franchises dwindled and Activision disbanded its Guitar Hero business unit. Shortly after it was sold by Viacom to investment firm Columbus Nova, Harmonix cut 12-15 percent of its staff to meet its product development plans.

Undeterred by those setbacks, Rigopolus said he's excited about this "new beginning" for Harmonix, revealing that the company's largest single development team is currently working on Dance Central, though he didn't outright admit a sequel. He also said the company has "significant resources" devoted to Rock Band in the near term and far term.

"We also have significant resources devoted to a number of new IPs and new game concepts in development as well. So there's actually quite a lot of work underway here on a diverse variety of projects," the CEO added.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33294/Harmonix_Dance_Central_Outselling_Rock_Band_3.php

This is pretty impressive but some people may have already expected it.

What i find impressive is that number doesn't include copies sold with Xbox 360 Kinect bundles or Kinect accessory bundles

It is excellent, but this dance game craze is going to become another Guitar Hero fad if they aren't careful.  There are already 3 or 4 other competing dance games on Kinect.

I liked that Harmonix recently said they are branching out into new IPs and other non-music games that rely on motion-gaming.

Outselling Rockband 3 isn't a huge accomplishment even when you combine all platforms - it bombed quite hard.

However, right now Dance Central is constantly in the top 25 sales for America and does quite well WW. It made NPD for January so I'm expecting it to keep selling well. I think MS has a new cash cow on hand if they can keep the series fresh with no dance moves and songs. Kinect Sports and this game should be the new games that well sell greatly with Kinect.

I'm more intrigued by this work on New IP. Although Harmonix has never to my knowledged worked on games outside rythm based titles I would love to see them think outside the box. What about a platformer used music as an intricate part of play. Or how about a band simulator where you build a band.

I would love to see Harmonix give us something no one else has before. Dancing games have been done before, though I must admit not dancing sim's like Dance Central to my knowledge. Harmonix has innovated and changed the industry I hope they can continue to do so.

 I am on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."

good for dance central